Hallucinations
by Moonstone Muse
Summary: Sakura's psyche was anything but stable. When Itachi walks up and sits on a rock directly across from her, Sakura really doesn't think anything out of the ordinary is happening. He's an hallucination, afterall...he is an hallucination, right?
1. The Beginning

**Hallucinations**

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Sakura asked, staring straight ahead unflinchingly.

"Supposed to be." Itachi agreed. He took a seat on the rock across from the pink haired ninja and regarded her with an expressionless gaze.

"If you're dead, that means I'm hallucinating." Sakura reasoned, then frowned. "However, if I'm not hallucinating…?"

"Then I am not dead." Itachi finished for her.

Shoulders relaxing, Sakura sat back on her hands. "Well then…how shall we solve that particular puzzle?"

Itachi blinked at her. "Why would I be a hallucination?"

Sakura snorted and looked away, uncomfortable. "I've been expecting something like this for a while now." She peeked at him from the corner of her eye, keeping her head tilted away from him. "I just didn't expect my subconscious to drag you back from the dead."

"Who were you expecting?" Itachi asked conversationally.

"Kakashi." Sakura admitted immediately.

"Why the Copy-Ninja?"

Sakura turned back to him. "As my hallucination, would you still call him that? I never called Kakashi anything other than his name and sensei. Or, would my subconscious, in an effort to make my hallucination more real and in character, have you call him the 'Copy-Ninja'?"

"Why the Copy-Ninja?" Itachi asked again.

Sakura sighed. "Fine, don't answer."

"I will not ask again."

She didn't answer for thirty seconds; she counted the time off in her head and then gave a reply. "I was in love with both Naruto and Sasuke, I don't want them to come back from the dead. Kakashi, though…he'd be nice to see."

"Naruto and Sasuke are both deceased?" Itachi gaped.

Sakura cocked her head. He was sort of gaping, but not really. Itachi made more of that same expression Sasuke had used to show puzzlement without losing his cool. "Yeah. Of course, if you were a hallucination, you'd know that already, since you are, essentially, in my head, literally. _But_, if you were a hallucination, my subconscious would be aware of the fact that you didn't know, since you died first…"

"I am a hallucination." Itachi stated calmly, too calmly. "How did they die?"

"If you're a hallucination, then you already know the answer." Sakura replied skeptically.

"I am not a hallucination." Itachi said with the same calm. "How did they die?"

Sakura visibly rolled her eyes. "Make up your mind, Itachi. Damn Uchihas."

"Please answer the question, Haruno."

Sakura made a disgusted face. "Don't call me that, nobody calls me that."

"What would you prefer?"

"If you were a hallucination—"

"Haruno…"

Sakura stuck her tongue out at the Uchiha and crossed her arms and legs defiantly. "Fine! Sakura, if you would."

Itachi inclined his head. "Sakura, how did they die?"

"Naruto and Sasuke?" The kunoichi's face took on a haggard look, the face of a person who has long since become exhausted of the world they lived in. "They killed each other."

"The Hatake?"

"Sasuke killed him." Sakura sighed again, running a hand through her shoulder length hair. "It was the three of them, like it always was. I was on the side lines; I could see the fight, but I couldn't take part." She rubbed at some abrasive scars on her wrist. "Naruto and Kakashi verse your younger brother, psychotic bastard. Sasuke got a lucky hit, managed to pierce Kakashi straight through the heart. As for Naruto and Sasuke…you should really see the crater they left. I don't know how they managed to kill each other, but they both took a desperate chance and…and…" Another weary sigh. "And…squish?"

Itachi nodded as his gaze lifted toward the sky. The last of the sun was setting, leaving purple and blues in its wake. "Konoha?"

This time, Sakura smiled. "Disaster zone. I don't know anybody who's left." She shifted her head to look Itachi straight in the eye. "I'm expecting Shikamaru next, just so you know."

Itachi didn't reply.

"Any other questions, Uchiha the Hallucination?"

"No." he replied, "My curiosity has been satisfied."

"What, you don't want to know why a seventeen-year-old girl is hallucinating you?"

Itachi's lips curved up slightly. "If I am a hallucination, I already know the answer to that."

Sakura sat up straight, excitement bubbling in her eyes. "So you can tell me? Because I really want to know why my psyche chose you!"

Itachi's smile grew larger. "Perhaps I am not a hallucination, and I do not know the answer."

Sakura narrowed her eyes, but her grin gave away her seriousness. "You're cruel, Itachi. I can see why Sasuke hated you."

Itachi stood up. "Thank you for the conversation, Sakura." He dipped his head. "It has been…fun."

"What, you're leaving?"

"As a hallucination, I have other things to do."

Sakura watched him, scrutinizing him. "I can't tell if you're joking."

"Until we meet again." With those words, Itachi walked away.

When he disappeared into the tree line, Sakura stood up. "No, wait!" She ran forward into the trees, her eyes searching for him. "Don't go yet!" she shouted out to him, "I—"

She froze before she could say anything more. Dejectedly, Sakura sighed. He was already gone, and he probably wasn't coming back.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This was originally supposed to be a one-shot inspired by an AMV I saw on youtube, but as I neared the finish, the story morphed. Suddenly, there were extra scenes to add detail to, and the thing was getting chapters! There will be about seven of these, each detailing a meeting between Sakura and Itachi. The more and more I write this, the more and more it begins to take on similarities to an amazing KisameXTenten fiction I read a couple years back. *stares off into the distance dreamily***


	2. 365 Days

**Hallucinations**

Sakura held the baby up to the light, studying its face and features. It was the healthiest baby she'd ever helped give birth to. It even had little wisps of black hair on its head.

"It's a girl." She proclaimed to the exhausted mother and father.

Weary smiles spread across their faces. "Really?" The mother beamed, "Thank kami!"

"We can't handle any more boys." The father grinned.

Sakura was just about to hand them the baby when something out the open window caught her eye.

"S-sorry!" she stuttered, practically tossing the baby into the expectant mother's arms. "I have something I need to take care of."

Sakura flew from the room and the house. She pressed flush against the railing of the porch and leaned over it, spotting her quarry.

"Itachi!"

The Uchiha turned around to regard her with a blank stare. "Sakura."

"Are you a hallucination?"

Itachi smirked knowingly. "Yes, Sakura, I am a hallucination."

"Then why'd you come back?" She asked without hesitation, her eyes locking onto his.

Itachi shifted his shoulders. Had he been wearing the Akatsuki cloak, Sakura probably wouldn't have even caught the action. Come to think of it, he hadn't been wearing the cloak the first time, either.

"If I am a hallucination," Itachi said, still smirking, "I only know what you know. If I am not a hallucination…"

"Then this is all coincidence." Sakura finished.

The Uchiha inclined his head.

"You're infuriating, Uchiha!"

"Oh?"

"Yes, oh!" Sakura fumed, gripping the porch railing tightly in her hands. "You just show up one day, hallucination or not, and then leave! One year later, here you are, just strolling back into my life for another encounter! Infuriating, Itachi, absolutely infuriating!"

"I know you contain rationality, Sakura." Itachi spoke, his voice calm despite being faced with an angry Sannin Apprentice. "Perhaps you should think a little harder."

"Think harder?" Sakura barked, "Think harder? How dare—"

"Sakura."

"What?"

Itachi inhaled and exhaled before speaking. "You are currently covered in blood."

"Wha—" Sakura looked down at herself, wondering what he was talking about. Then, she remembered that she had just delivered a baby, and her arms and clothes were completely covered in the birthing process fluids. She was surprised that Itachi hadn't made a disgusted look at her. "Oh, sorry…I can go wash up."

She turned away before fervently turning back. Sakura had half-expected Itachi to have already disappeared. "If you're a hallucination…will you wait another year before finding me?"

"If I am a hallucination, no." Itachi answered.

"What if you're not?"

"The reply is still 'no'."

Sakura frowned; she wasn't satisfied with the answer. "Fine, I'll go wash up."

* * *

><p>As she was sitting at a bar-stool in her favorite eatery, a week later, Sakura realized the flaw in her question.<p>

Itachi had said he wouldn't wait a year, which translated into: he wouldn't wait an entire three-hundred-and-sixty-five days.

Knowing how infuriating Uchihas were, Sakura bet it would be at least three-hundred-and-sixty-four days before she saw tail or hide of Itachi.

Damn Uchihas.

Sakura pushed the noodles around on her plate unhappily. She was starting to truly doubt her own psyche. She was hallucinating _Itachi_, for kami's sake. Who would hallucinate the evil older brother of the person they had loved since they were twelve? It just wasn't right.

She hadn't hallucinated any other people she had known. There were no other Akatsuki members appearing before her, no people she had only encountered on missions once or twice…no Shikamaru, no other Team 7, 8, 9, or Gai members…no Naruto, no Kakashi…no Sasuke…

Sakura sighed, allowing her head to fall comfortably on her arms. She was screwed.

She was so screwed.

She had no doubt about that.

Somebody sat down next to her. They must have ordered a drink, because a glass was set down in front of the newcomer. Sakura peered through her hair at the glass, noting that it wasn't being picked up.

"I apologize."

Sakura froze. Slowly, cautiously, she raised her head. "What do you have to apologize for?" Sakura asked, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"I was…delayed." Itachi replied, "I apologize."

They continued to sit.

"This is awkward." Sakura said, too tired to care how lame the statement sounded. "Is that glass next to you real? Can you pick it up?"

To answer Sakura's questions, Itachi reached out and lifted the glass of…water, the glass was filled with water…to his lips. He drank from it until the glass was half empty, then set it back on the table. Cautiously, Sakura reached out to touch the glass and pushed it an inch away from falling over the edge of the table.

"Interesting." Sakura deduced.

Itachi raised an eyebrow slightly in question.

"I can interact with the glass." She explained, "Which means (a) I am interacting with a real glass that my hallucination interacted with (b) I am interacting with a glass that I am hallucinating (c) I am interacting with a real glass that was interacted with by a real person."

"How will you conclude your final answer?"

Sakura reached out, inhibitions long since gone, and poked Itachi in the arm. Her finger touched real flesh. She tugged on the sleeve that ended halfway down his lower arm, it felt like fabric. Then, as a final test, Sakura wrapped her fingers around Itachi's wrist.

"Well?"

Sakura shrugged. "That didn't help."

An eyebrow was raised in her direction, again.

"Don't look at me like that." She muttered crossly. "Either I can interact with my own hallucinations, or you, Itachi Uchiha, most infuriating man/hallucination on this forsaken earth, are real."

"If only we knew which it was." Itachi smirked, eyes falling on the bar man.

Sakura scoffed, turning her head away. "I'm not asking him if he can see you."

"Why not?"

"That's embarrassing." She hissed, "What if I am hallucinating? Then I look like a crazy person."

"You sound like a crazy person."

"Are you trying to make a point, Itachi?"

"No, not at all."

Sakura fell silent. "Guess you'll disappear now, right?"

"I can't."

The kunoichi looked up at Itachi. "What do you mean you can't?"

"You are still holding onto me." Itachi stated, eyes looking down at Sakura's fingers enclosed around his wrist.

Sakura pulled back as if burned. "Fine, go! See if I need you."

"As you wish."

Sakura refused to watch him leave. She didn't turn around until the door to the bar/eatery had slammed shut. Only then, as she watched and heard it click into place, did she run from her bar stool and pry it open with almost enough force to unhinge the door.

"Wait!" she cried out into the dark. "Don't go! I do need you!"

He was the only thing still keeping her sane.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This is for Bloody Crystal black rose, who wrote me the most interesting review I've ever seen. So, just because I loved the review so much, I decided to post the next chapter, which has just been kinda sitting on my harddrive because I can't bring myself to do anything with anything. So, to Bloody Crystal black rose and interesting reviews!**


	3. 364  Days

Three-hundred-and-sixty-four days…she counted, marking each day on a piece of paper she kept either tacked onto the wall of whichever place she was staying at or in her breast pocket. Sakura never left the paper anywhere.

Her sanity was riding on that little piece of paper.

Sakura was hiking along the cold snowy path that led into Lightning Country. She had already been to the majority of the countries around Konoha…Bird, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, Sound…It was time to look for work in Lightning.

She hadn't been expecting him to just start walking beside her, bundled up in a heavy coat, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. It took Sakura several long minutes of walking and breathing into her hands to notice him.

"You kept your promise." Sakura said, darting a look at him from the corner of her eye.

Itachi didn't reply.

Sakura adjusted the hood of her fur-lined cloak and shook herself all over, ridding herself of the snow that had settled on her shoulders. "Am I ever going to find out if you're a hallucination?"

"Perhaps."

"Infuriating." Sakura whispered under her breath.

"Did you say something?"

"No, no, nothing at all."

Itachi peered over at her, unconvinced.

"This is getting kind of weird." Sakura admitted. "You're the only thing I look forward to."

"That is, as you say, odd."

"Not odd, weird!" Sakura corrected admonishingly.

"However you shall put it."

"Do you…" Sakura wrung her hands out nervously and flushed. "Do you look forward to seeing me?"

"These meetings are coincident circumstance." Itachi stated.

"Are you saying that as a hallucination, or a real person?" Sakura asked.

"I cannot answer the question."

"What the—" Sakura stopped walking. "What do you mean you can't answer the question?"

"I do not know the answer." Itachi replied, turning to face her.

"I…I…how can you not know the answer?"

"I was dead, now I am not." He vaguely explained.

Sakura took several steps closer. "Do you mind…do you mind if I try something?"

Itachi inclined his head. "No. I would like the answer revealed as well."

She stepped ever closer, close enough to breathe and cause them to touch from the action. "If you're a hallucination, then this doesn't mean anything." Sakura reached her arms up and looped them around his neck; she had to stand on her tippy-toes in order to reach. "If you aren't a hallucination…"

"It does not matter." Itachi breathed, his face so close to hers.

Their noses touched, twitched, kind of nudging the other. It was painstakingly slow, but every action, every small movement, was carefully deliberate. Their lips just barely brushed together, then separated a centimeter. Sakura closed her eyes, allowing them to flutter shut. The time it took for their lips to touch again felt like an eternity. The pressure was stronger.

Then, their lips were fully pressed together, practically smashed into one.

When Sakura opened her eyes and blinked, Itachi was gone.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I rather hate this chapter...I have such issues with it. And I'm still not sure what's wrong with it, or how to fix it...so after a month since posting the last chapter, I'll post this one.**

**My inbox is looking rather empty! How about sending it some reviews so that it can be happy?**


	4. 363 Days

The raindrops woke her; the way they leaked onto her face and fell onto her eyes was enough to stir her from her fitful slumber.

Sakura blinked a couple times.

Her face was snuggled into hair, black hair, black hair that smelled like ash and rain water.

"Wha…" She groggily lifted her head away from the hair.

Somebody was carrying her on their back. Sakura's arms were looped lazily around their neck and her legs were being kept secured at their side with a firm but gentle grip.

It didn't take her long to figure out who the mystery person was.

"Itachi?" Sakura squeaked, almost panicking.

"Please remain still, Sakura." Itachi said with calm. His grip on her legs tightened slightly. "You are making this difficult."

Hesitantly, Sakura looped her arms back around Itachi's neck and worked on staying still. "Why are you carrying me?" she asked, dropping her chin to rest on his shoulder.

"You were passed out on the side of the road." Itachi said in way of explanation.

Sakura sighed. "Hallucinations aren't supposed to be capable of carrying something."

"Perhaps you are dreaming."

"The hallucination makes a good point…" Sakura adjusted her head. "Or, my hallucinations have decided to twist reality this time."

"If I am a hallucination, you are dreaming." Itachi stated, "If I am not a hallucination…"

"Then you're a lot nicer than Sasuke made you out to be." She breathed into his ear. "I'm so tired."

"You were passed out on the side of the road." Itachi said again, as if that explained everything.

Sakura let her eyes slip shut, she couldn't keep them open. "I think it's been a while since I ate anything."

"You are a medical ninja. You should know when to eat."

"Work is scarce for a rogue medic." Sakura fisted her hand into Itachi's shirt. "The war is leaving so many people without belongings or homes. Not many people are willing to pay me."

Itachi made an assenting noise in his throat. "Hn."

Sakura sighed. The world of sleep was coming to reclaim her. "I'm going to sleep now."

If Itachi replied, Sakura was too busy in dream-world to hear him.

* * *

><p>Sakura shot straight up. Confusion marred her face as she took in her surroundings.<p>

She was sitting in a cart. The space was shared by a couple bags of grain. Harvest would have been about a month ago. Driving the cart was a man in a large sun-hat, his back hunched over the reins.

"Excuse me!"

The man turned back to look at her. "Hello, Mrs."

Sakura bit down on her lower lip nervously. "Uhh, where am I?"

"On the way to Wave Country, Mrs." He replied, "A man paid me to take you wherever I was going."

"A man…" Sakura mused to herself, "Long black hair?"

"Yes, Mrs."

The man returned his attentions to his horse.

Sakura, meanwhile, searched her person to ensure that her scarce belongings were in place. Her few medical supplies were still in her hip pouch, her kunai holster was still attached to her leg, she was still wearing a necklace given to her by her mother, and…a pocket in Sakura's jacket was bulkier than before. Tentatively, she withdrew what was inside it.

Sakura blinked at the bills in her hands and quickly began to count them. She had not had these on her before she had woken up. Sakura blinked again. The paper leaflets totaled to an amount well beyond what she had managed to earn in the last three-hundred-and-sixty…

"Excuse me!"

"Yes, Mrs?"

"Sorry to bother you, but…you don't by chance know the date, do you?"

The man nodded. "November 5th, Mrs."

Three-hundred-and-sixty-three days.

**A/N: I am really really sorry to the people who have been waiting for this update. You want to know the really funny thing? This story has been finished for over a year. In fact, for some reason, I had thought I had already posted all the other chapters. Then, today, I discovered this account, because I had even forgotten I had this account, and I read some reviews and I am so so so sorry for not posting these chapters sooner. You'll get a once week update, and there are only two more chapters after this, so it won't be a long wait. I am really sorry again for those of you who have been waiting for it.**


	5. 362 Days

The wind woke her up.

Sakura crawled out of her small bed, wrapping the blanket around her, and walked to one of the three windows in the hut. The howling and ferocious wind was probably tearing off what were left of the shingles on the roof. She'd have to hire the village boys to replace them.

Sakura turned on the wood stove and placed a pot of water she'd been saving for the morning on the burner. The wind wasn't going to let her get anymore sleep, she might as well make her morning tea then.

Besides, there were always injuries after wind storms. With Tea Country being separated from Wind Country by such a small peninsula ocean, they often got a lot of the same storms. Tea Country also took the majority of the hurricane hits.

Sakura looked back out the window. She hoped nobody was caught outside.

Sakura jumped five feet into the air when something hit the back of the hut. It had sounded like…something!

Forgetting her boiling water, Sakura rushed to the window in the back, trying to make out anything in the darkness. There was a hollowed log five feet away that had most definitely not been there before. Her attention on the log allowed her to catch sight of a figure.

She gaped like a mad woman. Who in kami's name would be crazy enough to try and walk through the storm?

Whoever it was, they were approaching the house. Sakura watched them work their way through the wind and toward the back door. They were using chakra to keep themselves attached to the ground.

Sakura quickly grabbed a lantern she kept by the bedside for emergencies, the power-box had a tendency to shut down in the wind storms, and lit it with a small fire-jutsu. Sakura never failed to think of Sasuke when she used it, since he was the one who had taught it to her.

The person saw the glow in the window and knocked on the door.

Sakura pulled it open without a second thought, and then almost slammed it shut.

"Itachi?!"

Itachi ducked into the hut and shook himself all over. Sakura recognized the movement, she did it too after spending an hour or so doing something uncomfortable or unpleasant.

"How long have you been walking through the storm?" Sakura asked, taking off Itachi's thin coat and replacing it with the blanket around her shoulders. "You could have been…"

Itachi raised an eyebrow at her.

"The tree almost skewered you, didn't it?" Sakura frowned sympathetically. She grabbed his arm and steered him over to the bed. "Sit!"

Itachi didn't move, only looked at her blinkingly.

"Now, Uchiha, or you'll wish you had."

Itachi sat.

Sakura walked back over to her boiling water. "Do you like tea?"

Itachi nodded.

"I can't say I have any sugar." Sakura said in conversation and she searched for another cup. Where had all the cups gone? "Tea's sugar harvest fell short. The Daimyo sold it to all the other countries for an over-the-top price, especially to the countries that rely on Tea for sugar, just to make ends meet on the harvest. I mean it when I say "All!", because he sold every last grain. There's not a tiny speck left in Tea."

Sakura finally found a cup hidden behind a stack of books and wiped it out with a cloth. She carried the two cups over to Itachi, handed him one, and then took a seat on the floor with her own cup. "Granted, if I actually made any money, I could buy some off that little black market that they all say exists, it's the only way Mara-san could possibly still make cakes for that little bakery of hers, but I don't have any money, so I go sugarless."

Sakura stared into her cup wistfully, wishing it was sweeter. "What are you doing walking around in a storm anyway?"

She looked up just in time to see her favorite mug go crashing to the floor. Itachi slumped forward. Sakura barely caught him and pushed him down into the bed.

The damn Uchiha was unconscious!

Sakura positioned him onto the bed so that he was facing the ceiling. She unlaced his boots and threw them over her shoulder, checked his forehead for a fever, and then started peeking into his clothes. Itachi was showing the signs of infection and blood loss; heavy and labored breathing, quick pulse rate, high fever, slightly shiver…

She pulled up his shirt and winced. It looked like a fairly thin tree branch had impaled him. Itachi must have broken off the end of the stick so that it didn't stick out of him too uncomfortably while he tried to find shelter. The wound was at least a day old.

Sakura counted off the number of days the storm had been blowing…two and half.

She frowned.

Several hours later, after the tree branch had been successfully removed, organs had been saved, and the hole patched up, Sakura's eyes fell on the wall space above her bed. There were little scratching marks, tallies, that counted up to a specific number.

Three-hundred-and-sixty-two.

* * *

><p>"Nice to see you're awake."<p>

Itachi blinked up at the hovering Sakura.

"I don't suggest moving." She advised, "Your poor immune system isn't getting enough calories. Judging by the lack of soldier pills in your clothes, I assume you ran out?"

"Yes."

Sakura turned away to pick up a cup, which she handed to Itachi. "Water with fresh lemon."

Itachi accepted the cup, but did not drink from it.

"I didn't poison you, Uchiha."

"There is no point in killing your own hallucination." Itachi replied, still not drinking from the cup.

"Do you mean to tell me that it's taken more than four years for you to figure out you aren't a hallucination?"

Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"Some boys from the village dropped off the lemons this morning." Sakura explained, "And they could see you."

"Perhaps the village is a hallucination as well."

Sakura sat down at the corner of the bed and crossed her arms; she was looking at the cup that still hadn't been drunk from. "It's possible that I'm crazy enough to be having full blown hallucinations now…did I imagine the man with the cart as well, and the money which paid for this hut? Have I really descended into madness?" Sakura's fingers had begun to tap against her arm impatiently. "Drink the damn water, Itachi!"

Itachi brought it to his lips and sipped. "If I am a hallucination…"

"Then I'm crazy and I've descended into a world of madness and I need medical treatment." Sakura replied sarcastically, eyes still settled on the cup. "If you're not a hallucination, however…?"

"You are not crazy." Itachi assented.

"And you're a pain in the ass, hallucination or no." Sakura pointed at the cup. "Drink it, or I'll stuff it down your throat!"

Itachi drank the lemon water.

Sakura waited until he had finished it before taking the cup. As she made her way to a cupboard to withdraw a loaf of bread, she went on talking. "I've decided to accept you, whether you're a hallucination or not. You're real to me, that's all that really matters, yes?"

Itachi inclined his head.

"I can touch you, interact with the things you do…even if the last four years of my life were nothing but a crazed dream, it's still real, in a sense."

Itachi inclined his head again.

Sakura whirled on him, a tray of sliced bread and butter in her hands. "Maybe you're crazy too, and we're hallucinating each other? Or maybe, we're the only real things in this whole place, and the hallucination is ours to control?"

"Or we are not hallucinating."

"Always a probability." Sakura set the tray on the bedside table and took a slice for herself. She gestured for Itachi to eat as well. "What are you doing in Tea Country?"

"An old acquaintance owned this house."

"She must have been the one that died." Sakura mused, "About a week before I arrived here."

"You appear to have settled down."

Sakura nodded. "I'm not much of a shinobi anymore."

Itachi looked at a shuriken on the bedside table. The look said "I beg to differ."

"I'll always have shinobi instincts and reactions; they've been trained into me since I was six. But I'm not running around the world anymore completing missions, I'm sitting in this little hut and giving medical attention to any who need it. I think I'm going to stay here."

"I have not yet found a place…to settle down."

Sakura glanced at the tray. "You should eat."

"You are content here?" Itachi asked, reaching for a piece of bread.

Sakura shrugged in reply. "Would you be?"

"Yes."

Sakura's eyes widened slightly. "I would think…wouldn't you be bored?"

"The war is over." Itachi stated. He was watching his piece of bread. "I am no longer needed."

Sakura stood up. "You just want a place to belong?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"I no longer wish to be a shinobi."

"Wha…" Sakura's piece of bread dropped to the floor. "But, but, you've been a shinobi your entire life!"

"It was expected of me, and then required of me."

Sakura floundered for words. "Then stay here."

Itachi lifted an eyebrow.

"What, it's not that preposterous, is it? If we're going to go crazy, we might as well do it together, right? And…well…I…" Sakura trailed off uncomfortably and began to fidget with her fingers. "Surely, it wouldn't be, that bad?"

"Sakura?"

"Wha-what?" she stuttered, suddenly nervous.

"May I have more water?"

"Yeah, sure, of course."


	6. Conclusion

Sakura sat at the foot of the bed, her chin settled on her knees, and watched Itachi. Sure, it was creepy that she was watching him sleep, but…

She hadn't been able to sleep, especially on the ice-cold stone floor.

Sakura sighed wearily.

Itachi had fallen asleep just as she had returned with another glass of water and hadn't woken up since. Sakura had been going nuts in her own head all afternoon and evening.

If Itachi stayed…

They'd be like a married couple, she mused. Except, they wouldn't, because they weren't a couple. They were just two people who had something in common.

They had kissed!

But Sakura had instilled that, and…

Itachi wouldn't be interested in her like that, would he?

He could be…

But he wouldn't be…

But…but…but…!

Infuriating Uchiha.

Sakura sighed for the umpteenth time that night.

Itachi was hot, any girl would admit it. He had such long eyelashes, eyelashes that Ino had always dreamed of having, and his face had all the right angles, his hair looked like silk…the only thing that was at all off-putting were the exhaustion lines around his eyes.

He was smart, so smart. Sakura had heard the ANBU Itachi rumors. Girls often commented on how good he had looked in the ANBU Uniform, despite being thirteen years old, and how smart and genius he had been. At thirteen, he knew how to lead men twice his age or older into battle, knew what to say and do to get them to put full faith and trust in him…

Sakura trusted him, she realized. Sasuke had hated Itachi, had made him out to be a bad and evil guy…

Maybe he had done some terrible things, but none of that mattered now. Konoha didn't even exist; the first created Shinobi Village, the first one to be wiped off the face of the earth.

Itachi had done some terrible things, Sakura didn't doubt that, but she really believed that none of it mattered, not now.

Frowning, Sakura rolled herself forward to sit on her knees. She really looked at Itachi then as she slowly inched closer.

He was…he was…

Sakura decided she really was crazy.

She lay down beside him, facing him, but keeping a foot of space between their bodies. It wasn't so bad…

They really could be…a married couple.

* * *

><p>Sakura blinked.<p>

Then blinked again.

She didn't usually sleep long enough for the sun to wake her up.

Sakura sat up sleepily and yawned. Tossing her hair to the side, she looked to the space behind her…

And proceeded to panic.

"Itachi?"

Sakura disentangled herself from the blanket that had mysteriously wrapped itself around her and draped it across her shoulders. Her eyes roamed the tiny hut.

He wasn't there.

She rushed to the back door and pushed it open with almost enough force to rip it off the hinges. "Itachi?!" She called.

Itachi looked back at her before returning his attention to a tree. He was performing combat exercises.

"What are you doing?" Sakura demanded, making her way over to him. "You're going to…" she paused for a second, unable to remember what she had been saying. "You're going to…"

Itachi ignored her and continued his exercises.

Stubbornly, Sakura grabbed his arm. "Stop!"

Itachi looked down at her.

"I…just…you were impaled by a stick." Sakura explained, "You're going to tear the freshly healed skin." She tugged on his arm. "Come on, you should be resting."

"I feel fine."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at him. "Fine, huh? So, you'd like to be stabbed through the gut again? Because I can do that for you!"

"Sakura."

"What?!"

"Calm down."

Sakura blinked. He was right, of course…

"Just…I…areyougoingtostay?"

"I did not understand you."

"I…uhh…I asked…are-you-going-to-stay?" Sakura took a breath between each word. "Will you stay? Here? With me?"

Itachi touched Sakura's wrist. Her arm was still holding on to him. "Would you like me to?"

"I…" she looked up at him. She…"I don't know…I think so."

"Then I will stay."

"You will?"

"If it is what you want."

Sakura's grip loosened considerably, but didn't completely fall away. "What do you want, Itachi?"

Itachi's fingers were tracing patterns onto her wrist. "I would like to stay."

"Really?" Sakura narrowed her gaze, confused. "But…why?"

Had Itachi's face just gotten closer? Sakura began to blink rapidly as her eyes widened.

"Our meetings weren't circumstance." His lips brushed against hers, then whispered some words. "I don't think I am a hallucination."

**A/N: I _Think_ this is the end of the story. I remember thinking that I had finished this two years ago, that it was over and done with, and I don't recall having any further ideas for the story or any other conclusion, so I do believe that this was supposed to be the end. And now that I look at it, I'm questioning two-years-ago-me's judgement. ^-^ **

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